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Identifying Your Target Audience: Defining Their Interests

This is part two in a five part series about identifying your target audience. Read the first post here.

Last week we answered a few questions to help us identify our target audience - not our current client but our dream clients. Not the people currently purchasing from you, but the people you dream of buying & using your products and telling their social media following about. To kick off this session, head over here and answer these simple questions & explore your answers, especially regarding their style, their hobbies & what sort of home they live in. Once done, you should have a clear vision in your head about your dream client, maybe you can even visualize someone you know or admire on social media as being your dream client.

Since I made the shift in how I market my products, I've gotten a wholesale gig, been contacted about a magazine feature & today was contacted by a lifestyle home goods site about offering several items on their site - on top of an almost 30% growth in new client purchases in just two months! Identifying & marketing to your target audience works. And today, we'll be further exploring how to make it work for you using this fun worksheet!

Again, it is not designed to analyze your current customers but to help you identify & define your target audience or as we call them - dream clients!

Parts 1-3 help you identify their style and how your brand & products fits into their life by helping you determine where they live, how your products fit into that space, and why they would like your stuff to begin with. No matter what you make, your dream client has to want to bring it into their home, or they won't bring it into their home. It's as simple as that. So by identifying where & how they live, how they decorate & use their space and how your products fit into it, you have a better chance at staging photos so they speak to your dream client!

They probably live either in the the city or suburbs, and have a grand kitchen in their home or apartment. They love well made kitchenware, stainless steel appliances, natural wood grain & granite counters. Their home style is old-world grandeur. Angela speaks to this audience by portraying her products in a high end kitchen, staged with raw ingredients.

Parts 4-6 help you define your dream client's interests and spending habits, as well as what sort of marketing tactics they are attracted to. Understanding your dream clients interests and consumption habits help you understand how they respond to marketing from larger industries & how your products fit into their consumption habits.

Since Shawna knows her clients like anime, kawaii-cute things & current trends, she can figure they are probably into coffee, records and eclectic fashion, too. She can then cater her content to include cute ootd (outfit of the day) posts, new record finds, mug shots (pictures of her & her coffee mug) and post frequently about what anime she is watching, and her audience becomes a community because of their shared interests & love for her art style.

Parts 7-9 help you to understand what type of content your dream client likes on social media. This is SO important - knowing what type of content your audience enjoys, actively pursues & shares is the keystone to understanding how to approach them & present your brand. Try to think of at least four people to put on this worksheet that your target audience follows. It can be celebrities, indie brands, bloggers - anyone you look up to & think your dream client would too. Determine why they follow those four people. Is it because they are all funny? Inspiring? Spiritual? Are they all kids clothing designers & parenting lifestyle bloggers? Are they all trendy moms? Photographers? What is it about these people your dream client loves? And of course - does your dream client share content from these people? If so, why? What type of content? Harnessing this knowledge is the key to understanding what sort of content your dream client is looking for & how you can produce similar content that is unique to your brand. Explore the people you think your dream client would follow. Look at this objectively - do not try to find similarities between the people your dream clients follow and you. Look for the differences. Learn from them. Look at how they style their images & present themselves & their brands, if they are businesses. Example: Pieces to PeacesDream Client(s): Fashionable young women & moms who are big into kids fashion & influential in this area, sharing brand names on social media.If your dream clients are following people who share outfit of the day posts & fashion posts, is this something that makes sense for your brand? For a tee shirt designer, pairing your tees with leggings, sunglasses & headbands by other independent businesses could be a great way to speak to your dream client & their passion in fashion. Danielle recently posted this photo, showing her daughters outfit for the day with a headband she makes & products from other indie designers.

Lastly, share in the comments - what makes you like your dream client so much? What is it about that awesome person that makes you want them to want your stuff?

Defining your dream client's interests is so important to understanding how to approach them. Next week, we'll use the info gathered from this week to help learn where to find out dream clients.

3 comments:

Thanks for this; I don't think I'm being as creative as I need to be but this is a totally new concept to me. I'm hoping it helps me get more exposure (: I've been doing this for years now and I should be more successful than I am!

My dream client is a fashionable woman who loves to dress in the pinup style, always with a flower in her hair, and with a mind for eco-consciousness. I love my dream client because that is just the fashionable type of person I dream of being! My client would want my flower accessories because the are unique, high-quality, made with upcycled/repurposed materials, and one of a kind.